1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing preserved foods, and particularly for the freeze preservation of cooked rice.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, for obtaining frozen boiled rice, boiled rice was placed on a tray or the like and arranged in a predetermined form, and then frozen as it was, to be packed as a commercial product. However, this method has many disadvantages: (a) it takes much time to thaw out, (b) loosening of the rice after thawing is ineffective, and causes deterioration of the taste, (c) weighing is difficult because the boiled rice grains are solidly stuck to one another in a caked state, both before and after freezing, due to their own adhesive power, or by freezing, and (d) the boiled rice grains protrude like needles on the outer face of the frozen boiled rice, giving trouble with vacuum packing which is currently regarded as the best packing.
These disadvantages are caused by freezing the boiled rice in a caked state to make products as lumps. Accordingly, in order to eliminate the above disadvantages, it is known to have the boiled rice grains scattered by hand before being frozen, or else boiled rice is thinly leveled by hand and then frozen, and then subjected to impact so as to be crushed into a scattered state. However, this has another set of disadvantages. Since it requires the pretreatment of scattering boiled rice or leveling it into a proper thickness by hand operation, the production cost is raised; it is very difficult to perform the above pretreatment in a uniform manner, and therefore to obtain uniform products; and the application of impact for crushing of the rice deforms and pulverizes the boiled rice grains, impairing the yield and commercial value to a large extent.